LOS ANGELES -- Some say the success of the New Jersey Nets is due to their all-everything point guard Jason Kidd and the way he has transformed them into one of the most dangerous running teams in the NBA. And that would be true.

But one of the main reasons the Nets have outlasted everyone (except the Lakers, of course) is because they've always had a Plan B.

Byron Scott is fast becoming one of the better coaches in the league at making adjustments on the fly. In the Eastern Conference finals when the Celtics got back so fast on defense that their fastbreak was non-existent, Scott put in brand new offensive sets that his players executed to perfection. He showed his guys how to rotate more efficiently when teams were beating them with the long ball.

Now they face their biggest challenge of all: adjusting to the inside dominance of Shaquille O'Neal. Their roster isn't going to change, so they've got to go with what they've got.

"It's a mismatch from the beginning," said Scott, whose Nets look to even the NBA Finals at one game apiece Friday. "Are we depending on Todd (MacCulloch) to neutralize Shaq? No one man can and I haven't asked him to. We are going to wear him down with our three guys."

Phil Jackson often likes to have his least skilled offensive player make the entry pass to Shaq from the wing. The thinking is the Nets will have their weakest defender on him and will offer little resistance on the double down. So the meat and potatoes of the assignment will be to push O'Neal out away from the hoop as far as possible and force him to the middle and shoot his jump hook falling away.

Those three would be MacCulloch, Aaron Williams and Jason Collins. Kenyon Martin and Keith Van Horn will be expected to help down low, but doubling Shaq from the wing will not produce great results.

Phil Jackson often likes to have his least skilled offensive player make the entry pass to Shaq from the wing. The thinking is the Nets will have their weakest defender on him and will offer little resistance on the double down. So the meat and potatoes of the assignment will be to push O'Neal out away from the hoop as far as possible and force him to the middle and shoot his jump hook falling away. Williams has been the most successful at this and should see an increase in the 15 minutes he played in New Jersey's 99-94 loss to L.A. on Wednesday.

Part of the Nets' difficulty is that they rarely see Shaq and don't really know how to prepare for him. In his one game against New Jersey this season, he ripped the Nets (mostly Collins -- MacCulloch was hurt at the time) for 40 points.

"He's a big guy with skills, strength, quickness," Williams said. "He's got everything."

And he fights for loose balls, throws elbows and generally doesn't appreciate it when he's handling his business inside. The Nets' interior players have already grown tired of banging hips with O'Neal. The Lakers aren't afraid to exploit that, either. In the first half of Game 1, they once dumped it into Shaq to start the offense on nine consecutive possessions.

Plan B? What Scott will try has already been done. He can throw nothing new at O'Neal and he knows it. So unfortunately for the Nets this could be a long series.

Make that a short one.

Chris Palmer is a staff writer for ESPN the Magazine.